Two recent studies have shown that preoperative anti-PD-1 immunotherapy is both safe and effective for patients suffering from oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). They also showed that certain molecular biomarkers signal the patient's potential of winning the battle against cancer.
Researchers of the studies show how to increase the effectiveness of immunotherapy to this kind of cancer to treat even the advanced malignant tumors.
Cancer Patients With high Immunoscores Have Better Outcomes
Malignant cells form cancerous tumors that slowly kill the body. As a response, the body releases immune cells to the tumor site and creates a tumor microenvironment in which a subset of these are known as the tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL), Medical Xpress reported.
In the study, titled "Immunoscore Signatures in Surgical Specimens and Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Pretreatment Biopsy Predict Treatment Efficacy and Survival in Esophageal Cancer" published in Annals of Surgery, researchers from Osaka University determined that the number of TILs in the tumor site of esophageal cancer (EC) indicates their likelihood of survival.
The team noted that EC biomarkers are important because it is one of the most common and deadly cancers worldwide with a grim prognosis even with surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Doctors usually employ neoadjuvant chemotherapy to cure EC, wherein they attempt to shrink the tumors before the primary treatment method. But not all patients respond to NAC.
Researchers said that the significant progress in anti-cancer immunotherapies that reprogram a patient's immune system to attack cancer cells is currently recommended. Cytotoxic T-cells, which are immune cells and are part of TILs, are seen to be particularly good at doing this.
Scientists have recently created a scoring system called Immunoscore (IS) to quantify TILS present in the tumor site. Researchers noted that the higher the IS, the better outcome the patient has.
Improving Effectiveness of Immunotherapy
In the other study, titled "Response and Recurrence Correlates in Individuals Treated With Neoadjuvant Anti-PD-1 Therapy for Resectable Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma" published in Cell Reports Medicine, researchers gave participants nivolumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody, to 12 patients with OCSCC stage 2.
According to Florida News Times, OCSCC is a type of esophageal cancer that often requires complex surgery and other sets of treatment. Patients who responded well to tumor-shrinking treatment were given antibodies at least four times every two weeks before undergoing surgery. But those who did not respond well immediately went directly to surgery.
Then the team compared the effectiveness of preoperative PD-1 block immunotherapy with conventional chemotherapy. The team observed that immunotherapy block the interaction between the PD-1 and PD-L1 in OCSCC cancer patients. Both PD-1 and PD-L1 suppress the T-cell response of the immune system.
The authors of the study said that they believe immunotherapy can be targeted to kill the cancerous or non-cancerous tumor without having a dramatic effect on healthy cells.
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